Faith-based health care clinics have been added to the list of providers who are eligible for up to $25 million in federal money to treat the poor and uninsured.

The Legislature extended the list of health care providers, who are eligible to receive "Low Income Pool" funds, to include faith-based clinics in this year's budget. The language was placed in the budget by members on the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee.

The Low Income Pool is a $1 billion annual federal appropriation meant to target health care programs that treat the poor and uninsured. Traditionally, LIP dollars have been targeted mostly to the state's public hospitals that treat the uninsured and indigent as well as some alternative programs offered by county health departments and federally qualified health centers. LIP dollars also have been used to help fund a subsidized insurance program in South Florida with Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

The lion's share of the LIP dollars is directed toward the states' hospitals. But the $25 million can go to primary care programs aimed at keeping people out of the hospitals and it includes faith based organizations in the list of providers who are eligible for the funds.

Sen. Durell Peaden, R-Crestview, and chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee, said the language was an attempt to provide a broad array of options. "My sense is we ought to have doubled the coverage of what we do have," Peaden said.

A LIP Council makes recommendations to the Legislature on how the dollars should be spent. The council met in Tallahassee on Wednesday where it briefly discussed the role faith-based clinics will play and how much of the $25 million would be appropriate to target toward faith-based clinics. LIP Council staff director Phil Williams suggested $750,000 grants be made available to faith-based clinics although no decision was made.

There is no definition of "faith-based" clinics in law but the Agency for Health Care Administration says it will require signed Medicaid contracts before it agrees to release any LIP dollars to faith based clinics.

Originally published in the Florida Current - exclusively distributed via Lobbytools  - Florida's Premiere Legislative and Media Monitoring Service.